Witch Catcher by Mary Downing Hahn is the latest book I’ve read, right before NaNo started this month actually. It was sitting over at Meiran’s apartment and I was waiting on her for something, perhaps for my turn on the sewing machine (I’ll have to post about that later), and picked it up. The cover intrigued me and once I got started I didn’t want to put it down. I ended up only getting about halfway through it, then had to wait a couple of days before I could return to Meiran’s apt. and sit and read the rest of it.

It’s a cute book and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but there were parts that left me feeling a little eh. The story is great, I just think that some of the characters don’t come off as well as they could, perhaps just aren’t rounded out enough. Granted that it is a young adult book, or perhaps even a level below that, I still feel the characters and the story could have been a little bit more complex.

I absolutely love that this story is based on a real object and what amounts to an old wives’ tale. That is one of the most fascinating things for me, to see a story grow from some random object or encounter. This author asked herself what story the witch catcher had, and from there the book grew. That little blurb in the back was probably my favorite part.

Okay, so I was gonna post two at a time. But then I got sick on Wednesday and didn’t feel like really doing anything. So I read all day. I didn’t get through all four of them that day (Lost came on) but I read about the equivalent of three (the last half of 3, all of 4 and 5, and the first half of 6). I just finished 6 last night so it would be done before I left for the weekend.

After the first book I really didn’t remember much more of the plot. I guess the first book made a bigger impression when I read them oh so many years ago. I really enjoyed reading these books again. I really like Pike’s writing style. He uses simple sentences, and it’s easy to understand, yet at the same time some of it is very profound.

The story follows Sita/Alisa through her many adventures and the friends she meets along the way. It becomes intertwined with destiny and there are many psychological aspects as well. Plus the general supernatural feel of the book, since it is about vampires. She ends up being the person who can save humanity, but to attempt that she has to travel a very long road. Each book has it’s own plot, as well as carrying this character forward for the final installment. I believe that you need to get to know Sita, and know what’s she gone through, in order to accept the ending of the series.

I still really like these books and now I will definitely be picking up some of my other Pike books and re-reading them. I’ll have to read one of his adult novels and see how the writing compares. I’m wondering if they’re really written differently, or perhaps just a tad more intense or complex than these. I don’t remember the difference striking me as I read them, but that was still a long time ago.

If you enjoy the supernatural, with a twist of destiny, then I’d say these are good books for you to read. If you happen to pick them up, let me know what you think.

I picked up The Last Vampire the other day, after unpacking all of my Christopher Pike books. I became addicted to Pike when I was in 8th grade and basically devoured everything he wrote as soon as it came out. There might be a couple I missed, but I have almost all of them. They were packed up for years because I had run out of room on my bookshelves. When I ran across them while unpacking my apt. I decided they had to come out.

I have to say I still enjoyed the story. I still really like Sita and I think I am much more intrigued by all the spiritual references to Krishna and so on. When I read it while I was younger I probably didn’t even pay attention to all that, probably just thought it was made up or something. After having a religion class in college (which I can’t remember a whole lot of) it made me look at it a little differently. The second book continued the story, about a month or so later I believe. I also really enjoyed it.

The sentence structure seems short to me, probably because I have grown to love complicated fantasy novels and classic literature like Jane Eyre. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing though, especially when the age range for these books is young adult. The story is easy to follow and is very engaging. Sometimes I think the shorter sentences actually puncate what the character is trying to say much better than a long drawn out explanation would.

I am currently reading the third book in the series. There are a total of six, so I’ll try to post ever two books and let you know if I’m still enjoying the story or whatever. So far I’m glad I decided to pick these back up. I have a ton of other Pike books I must go back and re-read now. I may end up making Pike books into my first collection here on Vox!

I actually read these a while ago, but am just now getting around to posting about them in here. I believe they’re considered young adult books, I’m not sure what the actual target age is for them. They’re really good books though. The author takes a fun twist to all the well known fairytales and such. Things are thrown in there so subtley that sometimes you’re not sure if it’s from a fairytale you know or not.

The first book, The Frog Princess, introduces us to the main characters and builds the story from there. The other books continue that story with new plots and all the characters you’ve grown to love. There are singing swords, dragons, fairies, witches, wizards (or warlocks – can’t remember which they call them), trolls, and all manner of mischief and adventure along the way.

Granted I’m well above the age range for these books, but I still enjoyed them immensely. They’re good, fun, light reading that left me feeling good when I was finished with them. It wasn’t anything to take too seriously and I didn’t have to really work to understand the book, which is nice sometimes when you just want to escape.